Reuters:

Venezuela TV station says troops seized equipment

Venezuelan troops have seized an anti-government television channel's broadcast equipment, the station said on Sunday, ahead of a controversial midnight EDT/0400 GMT takeover by President Hugo Chavez that will take the broadcaster off the air.

Chavez sparked international criticism with his decision to not renew RCTV's license and to replace Venezuela's most-watched channel with a state-backed network that will promote the values of his self-styled socialist revolution.

Despite the author's attempt to distance his own beloved socialism from what Chavez is doing, there nothing "self-styled" about it. For example, this private enterprise is now moving into government hands -- that's textbook socialism. (And it never happens voluntarily, since nobody ever wants to donate a media empire to the government.)

Since coming to power in 1999, Chavez has taken control of the judiciary, army and crucial oil industry as part of his leftist reform campaign.

US leftists are a bit smarter: they want to a "fairness doctrine" to exert this control. And I doubt Rupert Murdoch would be brave enough to resist until the point of arrest, as these journalists were.

RCTV along with the country's other networks openly supported the coup that toppled Chavez for two days, then refused to cover supporter protests that helped bring him back to office.

But the government on Saturday renewed the license of Venevision, which took the same stance during the coup but has since softened its editorial line to favor Chavez.

I love it: They "softened" their expressed views, their "editorial line", to favor Chavez. Chavez is, we presume, a "moderate", and failing to support him would thus be a "hardline" stance.

Orwell anticipated Reuters, apparently.